One of the most impactful statements I’ve ever heard about cancer came from a young mother who had just received one of the most devastating possible diagnoses.

She said “I may not be able to change the endpoint but I can change the trajectory!”

I felt so many things at once after hearing her say that: compassion, admiration, courage, sadness, embarrassment over some my own trivial life priorities, gratitude, injustice and a sense of helplessness. It also made me think back to one of the most common questions I get when people find I work in Oncology: “How and why do you do what you do?” But in thinking back on that patient and how her simple determination to find meaning affected me, I’ve realized the answer is “how could I not?”

Scientific and technologic advances are providing new treatment and symptom management options across the cancer care continuum– but at Green Bay Oncology we also realize that cancer care is as much an art as a science. We recognize the central importance of the quality of a patient and family’s experience through diagnosis, treatment, and what comes after. It’s not enough to treat a person’s cancer. We must also help patients and families feel as well as possible during the process. To do that, we must first help them see and feel how much we care about them as individuals. We have an incredible multidisciplinary team at the Cancer Center working together to change the endpoint whenever possible, and to optimize the trajectory in every case – to help make a difference no matter how challenging, small, or short-lived. This is the essence of why we do what we do…because it means something.